The toss was an important one to win as it was clear the pitch would be receptive to the slower bowlers, which would always make it tricky for the side batting side second. Dravid won it and, having learnt his lesson from their last game against MI, took up first use of the wicket. Him and Rahane got Rajasthan off to a perfect start. Timing the ball is crucial on a slow wicket and neither tried to over hit the ball, learning from their mistakes whenever they failed from looking to force things too much. Boundaries were struck and the strike was rotated, cutting out dot balls was clearly part of the game plan. At 45/0 at the end of the powerplay they had built the perfect start for a score of around 140-150 that would have proved seriously difficult to chase. Shakib then came into the match and turned (excuse the pun) the match on its head, dismissing Rahane with his first ball that kissed the outside edge on its way through to the keeper. From then on in cutters and regular spin bowling were the order of the day as the ball deviated sharply off the pitch with little pace to work with. Menaria was ran out, seemingly inevitable after numerous mix-ups with Dravid, who fell to a well anticipated catch by Tiwary at short-ish cover, and all of a sudden RR found themselves at 49/3 with a tough ask on their hands to post a challenging total. Goswami (24) and Shah (31), a reliable performer for the Royals this year, ground out a very handy partnership of 59 that gave their side a base from which to attack from late on. They realised that it was a tough pitch to score on and didn't panic after dot balls, in the knowledge that it was near impossible for new batsman to come in and immediately score runs. It looked like that late flourish was never going to come, Goswami and Shah both fell trying to force the pace but the last over went for 15 runs, Botha hitting a boundary as well as 91m six from Hodge. That propelled RR to 131 and, on such a tricky wicket, looked a par total despite possibly being short of what they had in mind when the openers were going nicely. Shakib and Narine, the highly rated West Indian, both used the favourable conditions with 4-0-17-3 and 4-0-22-1 respectively but at the half way mark KKR will have known they were in for a tough chase and a close game.
It was a similar innings to that of the Royals as the top order started well when the ball was at its hardest but all batsmen really struggled against the slower bowlers, confronted with sharp turn and absolutely no pace to work with. Gambhir hit a couple of nice boundaries off Botha in the 1st over, showing what a good player of spin he is, and the Royals would have been desperate to see the back of him from the word go. Another mix-up, a regular feature in this year's edition, presented RR with Gambhir's wicket, following good work from Dravid and this led to another attritional stand as in the previous innings. Kallis' (31 from 38) role was obviously that of the anchor, waiting for the bad ball to score off, and Bisla was the more aggressive. They were playing well but the Royals would always have been confident, knowing that one wicket and all of a sudden a new man would have to come in and play themselves in, eating up dots and raising the required rate. Kallis fell LBW to his compatriot, the accurate and economical Botha (4-0-22-1) and the ever green Hogg was proving just as miserly. Bisla holed out not long later and this left KKR at 95/3 after 15 and still needing 37, a simple equation on most pitches but certainly not here. Tiwary played a good hand (a run a ball 29) but was stumped at a crucial time wandering up the pitch to Hogg, having just hit the first two balls of the over, and would have rued his shot selection had they not got over the line. In the end it was the star of the previous innings that played a brief yet decisive knock. Shakib (MoM) swept Trivedi delicately to the fine leg boundary and smashed Amit Singh over deep mid-wicekt to swing the match back into his side's favour and, despite falling 2 balls later attempting another unnecessary boundary, allowed his side the breathing room to finish it off, something ten Doeschate did in style with a slog swept 6 over the leg side off the 2nd ball of the final over. An extremely impressive chase from Kolkata as 130 was so nearly enough for Rajasthan who will be frustrated at not having scored the 140+ target that would probably have won them the game.
The game was decided by Shakib, who proved exactly why he's the no. 1 all rounder in ODI cricket. He often doesn't make the starting line-up for KKR, a mystery to many onlookers, and on today's evidence looks good for a string of games. I thought Rajasthan were in the driving seat from the moment they won the toss and started so well, highlighting what a good performance it was from Kolkata who gained a good victory. It was a well constructed chase that required a number of players to chip in, the knocks of Kallis, Bisla and Tiwary were important before a couple of boundaries from the Bangladeshi star got his side over the line.
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